Fortnite is a video game started by Tim Sweeney and Mark Rein in 2018 and is very popular today.
Fortnite has many different game modes, but the main one is battle royale. Players can choose a character or “skin” in the lobby of the game. From here they will be dropped into a map, along with 99 others, and will have to fight to be the last one standing.
Fortnite is very popular amongst the Marist community and students dedicate many hours playing the game, mainly on weekends but sometimes on weekdays. Baker Hardison, one of the many sophomores why play, shared his playing time. “I would say I play on week days anywhere from 1-3 hours a day, and on weekends anywhere from 3-8 hours a day,” he said.
Whether good or bad, this many hours that students put into the game definitely have a big effect on the community.
Fortnite was most popular around 2020 during Covid. Hardison is one of the many players that admits to playing the most during quarantine. “But I will say I have never played as much as 2020 Christmas,” Hardison said, referring to a period of time when the pandemic had the world in lockdown.
Following the December 2023 release, which brought back the originally map, many of the games past players are jumping back into the game, making it the extremally popular game it once was.
This video game is a great tool to connect with other students. Beyond Fortnite just being a fun game to play, students use the game to build friendships.
Sheppard Singletary is a player that feels that the game has had a big impact in his social life. Singletary said, “I devote my time to Fortnite because it provides me a continuous, reliable source of joy as well as a way to connect with other people. It has helped me create new friendships, spark old ones, and keep up with the ones I already have. It serves as a part of my life that helps me grow and strive socially, and it is a game that, no matter what, I end up having a good time on.”
Many would be surprised by how many hours the average player puts into the game.
A study conducted in 2020 indicates how much time the average player spends on the game. The study showed that 36% of players played as few as 0-5 hours per week while 5% of players played as many as 21 or more hours per week.
